How compensation compares between Georgia staff and travel nurses

Shutterstock // Gorodenkoff How compensation compares between Georgia staff and travel nurses Heightened demand made nursing a high-paying profession over the last decade, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020. Nationally, registered nurses today earn more than $45 per hour on average—about $14 more than the average wage across all occupations in the United States. Traveling nurses with the same skills and credentials can earn another $16 more per hour, on average, compared to staff nurses. A typical contract for a traveling nurse is about 13 weeks but can be much shorter or longer. In some states, the pay discrepancy between travel and staff nurses is even more dramatic. Vivian Health leveraged its own proprietary data, along with data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, to analyze pay differences between staff and travel nurses in Georgia as part of a broader national analysis. Data from both sources was last updated in May 2023. BLS data on registered nurses is conflated with staff nursing positions in this analysis, though the numbers would technically include travel nurses, as well. However, travel nurses comprise a small portion of the overall RN workforce, and their wages won’t affect the overall averages too much....